scholarly journals An Analysis of English Oral Communication Apprehension and Anxiety of Engineering Undergraduates in Pakistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 162
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arif Soomro ◽  
Insaf Ali Siming ◽  
Mansoor Ahmed Channa ◽  
Syed Hyder Raza Shah ◽  
Nadeem Naeem ◽  
...  

This paper investigates the communication apprehension (CA) and a form of anxiety which affects the engineering undergraduates’ oral communicative skills in English and particularly in oral presentations. However, this study was mainly based on the research question to be investigated: What barriers prevail among undergraduates that handicap their successful language learning and oral communicative skills in English? This study used qualitative instruments for collecting data; the instruments used were included as semi-structured interviews with eight participants and two focus group discussion to explore the barriers among Pakistani undergraduates. The data were analyzed using content analysis of the gathered data. The results revealed that communication apprehension can cause the variety of barriers among undergraduates during oral presentation. The results provided positive insights to communication practitioners and language educators on the issues related to communication apprehension; therefore, certain measures need to be taken to surmount the identified barriers.

Author(s):  
Anggia Sri Ryzky ◽  
Wendi Kusriandi

This study, analyzed the students’ communication performance and competence in the speaking class. This study also measured the students’ communication apprehension level and its correlation with communication performance and competence. 30 students of second year students of SMK Pariwisata Kosgoro Cirebon took part in this study. The data were gathered through questionnaire, presentation test to get the score of communication performance and interview test to get the score of communication competence. The correlation study was used to investigate the relation of each variable. The result from the students’ performance showed that 66,7% of the students scored below the school standard score (75) and 70% of the students scored below standard score in the interview test. The participants showed the highest apprehension to public speaking and the lowest apprehension to group discussion. Their level of apprehension showed that 43.3% students were in moderate level and 56,7% students were in high level of apprehension. It was also found that communication apprehension was negatively correlated with communication performance. While the result from the correlation between communication apprehension and competence showed that there was a very low positive correlation but, there was a high positive correlation between communication competence and performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Arif Nugroho ◽  
Novrika Nartiningrum

<p>Among the four English skills, oral communication becomes crucial for undergraduate students to be more competitive in the work-places. In a foreign language teaching, designing appropriate classroom activities is a prerequisite for the success of a language learning. Therefore, this study sheds some light on 92 EFL learners’ perceptions and insights of classroom activities for teaching speaking. Drawing on the data obtained from questionnaire and focus group discussion (FGD), the findings illustrated that the students held moderately positive perceptions toward the speaking activities in their classroom. In addition, the results of FGD revealed some insights from the students with regard to the ideal classroom activities for teaching speaking. The findings of this study provide insights for EFL teachers in designing appropriate classroom activities to achieve the success of teaching speaking.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>teaching speaking, classroom activities, students’ perception</p>


Author(s):  
Laser Romios ◽  
Nindya Primandita ◽  
Novilda Angela Saragih

<p class="AbstractText">This study is aimed at exploring the voices of English teachers and students of a state senior high school towards the National Exam policy and its implementation in Indonesia. Several theories of psychology and language learning were applied in this study as the theoretical framework. This study used a descriptive qualitative method. The participants were chosen by purposive sampling technique. The data for this study were garnered through a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) conducted to the selected twelfth-grade students and semi-structured interviews done to two English teachers. Both data were analyzed descriptively. Upon the analysis, two paramount themes prevailed: (1) the negative response towards the implementation and accuracy of National Exam (NE) policy in Indonesia; and (2) unintended impacts of NE policy on teaching and learning activity, students’ motivation, and English Language Learning and Curriculum. This study offers information for the government as the policymaker, school leaders, teachers, and researchers to understand how the NE is implemented at the school level.</p>


Author(s):  
Ali Faridizad ◽  
Shahla Simin

The ability to communicate effectively is the optimum goal of learning English. Class participation plays a pivotal role in improving oral communication. Some obstacles prevent students from reaching class participation which may halt student' potent communication. Oral communication apprehension has been found to be the most important factor affecting the class participation. With all the differences separating males and females, it is no surprise that communication apprehension would be affected by gender differences. The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between learners' gender differences and oral communication apprehension with respect to class participation. To achieve this goal, 140 undergraduate students including 70 males and 70 females majoring in English literature, translation and teaching from Sheik-Bahai University were selected. This sample was chosen by means of simple random sampling procedure. A questionnaire was utilized as the instrument to examine the relationships between learners' gender differences and oral communication apprehension. The data accumulated by means of the questionnaire were analyzed to ascertain the answers to the research question. In general, the findings showed that female students tend to be more apprehensive than men regarding the class participation.


Author(s):  
Liana Aisyah ◽  
Arif Maftuhin

Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN Sunan Kalijaga) Yogyakarta declared its commitment to become an inclusive university in 2007 with the establishment of its Centre for Disability Studies and Services (now Centre for Disability Services). As a higher education institution, this commitment should be reflected on its organizational structure as well as its three main missions, i.e. teaching and learning, research and publication, and community service and engagement. This study was aimed at examining and mapping UIN Sunan Kalijaga’s contribution to research and publication in the field of disability studies and inclusive education. A mixed-method approach was employed to collect data. Item pooling was conducted through literature study and structured interviews as well as focus group discussion. This was followed by a systematic content analysis to answer the main research question: in what forms has UIN Sunan Kalijaga contributed to research and publication in this field. A further analysis was conducted to examine the extent of its contribution in terms the number and kinds of research and publications and their impact to the academic world.[Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta menyatakan komitmennya untuk menjadi universitas inklusif pada tahun 2007 dengan pendirian Pusat Studi dan Layanan Disabilitas (sekarang Pusat Layanan Disabilitas). Sebagai lembaga pendidikan tinggi, komitmen ini harus tercermin pada struktur organisasinya serta tiga misi utamanya, yaitu pengajaran dan pembelajaran, penelitian dan publikasi, serta layanan dan keterlibatan masyarakat. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji dan memetakan kontribusi UIN Sunan Kalijaga untuk penelitian dan publikasi di bidang studi disabilitas dan pendidikan inklusif. Pendekatan metode campuran digunakan dalam penelitian ini untuk mengumpulkan data. Pengumpulan dilakukan melalui studi literatur dan wawancara terstruktur serta diskusi kelompok yang terfokus. Penelitian diikuti oleh analisis konten sistematis untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian utama: dalam bentuk apa UIN Sunan Kalijaga berkontribusi untuk penelitian dan publikasi dalam bidang ini. Analisis lebih lanjut dilakukan untuk memeriksa sejauh mana kontribusinya dalam hal jumlah dan jenis penelitian dan publikasi serta dampaknya terhadap dunia akademik.]


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeuk Park

AbstractThe rapid advancement of technology has allowed computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to have made inroads in the area of pedagogy for language and culture learning. While the majority of studies have used online and virtual environments for culture learning, very little attention has been paid to a real world environment. This study is based on a digital kitchen where students can learn foreign language, culture and cuisine at the same time through cooking tasks. Learning cultural aspects can be properly realised via cooking because the daily activity provides a window into culture, and the digital kitchen provides users with opportunities to directly encounter the target culture themselves via cooking and tasting. 48 international participants conducted two cooking sessions, one in a digital kitchen using real objects and the other in a classroom by looking at typical pictures/photos in a textbook. A range of data sources were employed, such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and video-observations to answer the research question. It was found that students learned foreign cultural aspects better when in direct engagement in a digital kitchen by handling actual items than when in a classroom by simply using photos. This study contributes to the development of the real world learning environment for culture learning via innovative technology.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athar Yousef Abdullah Al-Garawi

This study aimed to investigate the benefits and barriers of using Instagram in English language learning. The sample of this study consisted of 151 randomly-selected female students enrolled in the department of English at the College of Languages and Translation at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in the academic year 1436/1437– 2015/2016 in the first semester. The researcher used both a five-point Likert scale questionnaire as a quantitative instrument and semi-structured interviews withstudents as a qualitative instrument to collect the data of the study. Those instruments were validated by ten university professors. Similarly, the reliability of the questionnaire was achieved by calculating Cronbach Alpha formula. The findings of the study revealed that the most important benefits of using Instagram in learning English were as follows: improving the reading, writing, and listening skills, providing enjoyable learning experiences, enriching vocabulary, improving oral communication skills, and enjoying a sense of freedom of time and place. Furthermore, the results of the study unveiled the following challenges of using Instagram in English learning: distracting attention, lack of direction from the syllabuses, lack of encouragement from instructors, embarrassment, lack of immediate feedback, the cost of Internet access, and the difficulty of writing long passages. Finally, the findings of the study presented the following solutions to Instagram barriers in English language learning: creating learning accounts and posting important things in the lecture, following only specialized accounts for learning English.


RELC Journal ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 003368822110670
Author(s):  
Nourollah Zarrinabadi ◽  
Elnaz Afsharmehr

This qualitative study aimed to examine Iranian language teachers’ mindsets about language learning and teaching, and the ways in which their mindsets influenced their educational practices. The participants of this study were 20 Iranian language teachers who taught general English courses at private language institutes in a city in central Iran. The data were collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with the participants. The qualitative content analysis was conducted, and the main themes and categories were extracted. The results revealed that teachers had categorical (fixed or growth) or mixed mindsets (both fixed and growth mindsets). Moreover, the results showed that teachers’ mindsets influenced teachers’ pedagogical strategies, homework assignment, and their praise type. The findings show that it is important to raise teachers’ awareness about their mindsets and the effects they might have on their teaching strategies and the feedback/praise they give to their students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Muhammad Arif Soomro ◽  
Insaf Ali Siming ◽  
Syed Hyder Raza Shah ◽  
Mukhtiar Ali Rajper ◽  
Sadia Naz ◽  
...  

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting oral presentation skills of undergraduate-learners of English that influence their academic performance which potentially can affect professional career. The study has used quantitative instrument as questionnaire partially adopted from McCroskey (1982) for data collection among 100 undergraduate-participants on factors affecting oral communication skills at one Public Sector University. Purposive sampling method was used since participants were selected on specific criteria of only first year engineering undergraduates. The data were analysed through SPSS, v.20 for obtaining percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, and standard error of mean to be measured. The findings revealed that oral presentation skills as the most problematic for engineering undergraduates. The results also revealed that the several factors affected engineering undergraduates&rsquo; oral presentations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Kartika Febiyanti ◽  
Mansyur Srisudarso ◽  
Praditya Putri Utami

Writing is one of the four essential language skills for language learning. Writing is considered important because it's one of the communication medium and it makes student critical. However, writing is a significant difficulty for both native and non-native learners. Due to advancements in technology, LMS enables educators and students to communicate and engage in new ways. Google Classroom, being one of the most widely used LMS platforms, may assist students in developing their ability to write a descriptive text. This research aimed to investigate students’ perception of using Google Classroom in learning writing descriptive text. The subject examined students in the tenth grade at a Senior High School in Indonesia. This research used a qualitative approach with a narrative inquiry. The researcher utilized semi-structured interviews to gather the data and analyzed them using the thematic analysis of Braun & Clarke. The indicator of the research question is based on UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance of Technology) by Vankavesh (2003). The study discovered that students preferred using Google Classroom to learn descriptive text. Google Classroom helps them to know and understand descriptive writing materials easily. However, Effort Expectancy may be altered with sufficient internet use and Google Classroom upgrades.


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